Web searching has come a long way but can still be very frustrating for Internet users. Navigating to useful information using a modern search engine still largely hinges on the accuracy of the user's search terms. Unfortunately, there is little structure to search queries, which consist predominately of a few keywords the user believes captures his or her intent. Instead of phrasing search queries in complete sentences, search queries usually include the fewest number of words a user believes summarize the user's question to be answered online; for example, “Where is the best pizza place in Seattle?” becomes “Best Pizza Seattle.” When search terms yield few results or results far different than the user's intent, users have little recourse than to enter better terms. For all the technological advancements in modern search engines, people are stuck with a relatively rudimentary approach to find what they want other than entering keywords, hunting through returned results, and trying alternative keywords when the results do not include desired information. Such an approach is effective when the user specifies a search query in the correct manner but can be frustratingly ineffective when not.
Also, not all search queries are error free (grammatically or typographically) or include keywords that properly reveal a user's search intent. Search engines are tasked with finding results for all kinds of queries, no matter how poorly written or far from the point a user's keywords. The effectiveness of search results are judged not by the actual keywords but on how well the results produce the information the user desires. Helping users accurately and quickly find online information is the lifeblood of today's search engines.